linking carphone to cell phone

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Blazingnoob - 13 Jul 2007 19:53 GMT

I am trying to help a friend out with something I believe is possible but
am not 100% sure how to do it.

He has a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado that is prewired with Onstar AND cell
phone. He is a contractor and wants to be able to have one number that goes
to both the car and his mobile phone.

He COULD call forward the car phone to the mobile phone but then he would
be paying for 2 cell phone contracts plus Onstar for some reason also
charges a hefty premium.

It was my understanding that the only thing a cell phone needs to become
actie in a particular system is a chip. I am wondering if there is someway
to get and install a verizon chip in the car to activate it for verizon. If
it matters, the verizon cell phone is a 325i. I don't know what kind of
system is in the Silverado.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Blazingnoob

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Todd Allcock - 13 Jul 2007 23:04 GMT

> It was my understanding that the only thing a cell phone needs to become
> actie in a particular system is a chip. I am wondering if there is someway
> to get and install a verizon chip in the car to activate it for verizon.

No. There are two types of cellphone technologies in use in the US; GSM
and CDMA. GSM, used by Cingular and T-Mobile, use the "chip" (actually
called a SIM card, or "Subscriber Identity Module.") SIMs can be moved
from phone to phone and the phone currently using the SIM is "active" on
that account.

Even if his handset an the vehicle did use SIMs, he'd have to constantly
move it from phone to phone to avoid having two active lines- two SIMs
can't "share" a number.

Verizon (which is what OnStar uses) and Sprint are CDMA, which do not use
SIMs, and their phones themselves need to be activated directly by the
cellular carrier.

If he wants both phones to work, he can look into a "family plan" which
is cheaper than two separate accounts. Each phone will have it's own
number, but he can forward one to the other as you mentioned.

> If
> it matters, the verizon cell phone is a 325i. I don't know what kind of
> system is in the Silverado.

I'm not sure if you can activate an "OnStar" phone with Verizon directly
or not- he'd need to check with them or GM to be sure.

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